Ethnographic Exploration of The Culture of Degrowth: The Role of Anthropology in a Changing Climate

Ethnographic Exploration of The Culture of Degrowth: The Role of
Anthropology in a Changing Climate

Peter SUTORIS (Assistant Professor, University of York)

Degrowth, the idea that the environmental crisis demands a controlled decrease in the extraction of natural resources, has been primarily studied in the fields of economics and political science. This talk is based on the premise that making degrowth economically feasible means that it needs to be politically palatable, which in turn requires the emergence of a culture of degrowth. The talk will ask, what does it mean to study degrowth anthropologically? What are the symbolic landscapes and ritualized practices of a culture of degrowth? Drawing on environmental anthropology and public anthropology, the talk will make the case that exploring these questions is not simply just
an intellectually stimulating pursuit that can help expand the horizons of anthropological knowledge and theory but also a form of ethical, engaged research that helps shape the world outside the ivory tower of academia and aids anthropology in reinventing itself and remaining relevant in the changing climates of today’s world.